Li Wenliang

Li Wenliang was a Chinese ophthalmologist known for raising awareness of early COVID-19 infections in Wuhan. On 30 December 2019, Wuhan CDC issued emergency warnings to local hospitals about a number of mysterious "pneumonia" cases discovered in the city in the previous week. On the same day, Li, who worked at Wuhan Central Hospital, received an internal diagnostic report of a suspected severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) patient from other doctors which he in turn shared with his friends. He was dubbed a whistleblower when that shared report later circulated publicly despite him requesting confidentiality from those with whom he shared the information. Rumors of a deadly SARS outbreak subsequently spread on Chinese social media platforms, and Wuhan police summoned and admonished him for "making false comments on the Internet about unconfirmed SARS outbreak."